It’s still possible to run newspapers profitably despite current challenges – Ajibola

Alhaji Isiaq Ajibola was the Managing Director/Chief Operating Officer (MD/CEO) of Media Trust Limited until December 2014. He has now moved on to establish another media outfit, CBD Media Edge Communications Limited, in Abuja, where he is Chairman. At Media Trust Ltd, he is still a member of the Board of Directors, and one of […]

Alhaji Isiaq Ajibola was the Managing Director/Chief Operating Officer (MD/CEO) of Media Trust Limited until December 2014. He has now moved on to establish another media outfit, CBD Media Edge Communications Limited, in Abuja, where he is Chairman. At Media Trust Ltd, he is still a member of the Board of Directors, and one of the experts on the Board of Economists of Daily Trust Newspapers.  In this interview, he spoke on his current challenges and how to tackle the predicament in the media industry in Nigeria today

You retired last year as the Managing Director of Media Trust Limited, Abuja. How has life been for you on retirement after almost 20 years of service in Media Trust Ltd?
I haven’t seen much significant difference in my routine. I am probably busier than when I was doing the day-to-day work at Media Trust. I have just set up a new company, CBD Media Edge Communications Ltd. As you know when you are setting up, it takes a lot of your time. I am also involved in other things. So, the difference is not much for me. As you also know, Daily Trust board is an active board on which I serve. I am sure you see us around sometimes.
When people retire from being MD, they usually live big, flying abroad, going on holidays and such things. Why did you retire into active business?
I do all those only when they are convenient. That is when their timings are not in conflict with my work schedules or with my purse (laughs). I believe in work.  I don’t see how in the immediate future I would want to assume the role of so-called ‘big’ man and only do the light works. I am very active in my daily life but probably less under pressure to meet critical deadlines than before. I also play more golf than I used to do then.
From Media Trust to Media Edge: what are the similarities for you and what are the differences?
At Media Trust, I was involved in the day-to-day administration of the company, which actually became an auto pilot  some few years ago. It was no longer difficult to run compared to when we started and needed to set up structures. It became an auto pilot company of sort. Indeed, it became less challenging for me. As a pioneer general manager of the company my role was not too different from what I was later doing as the managing director. The only difference was the expansion of the company’s operations when we now have more plants, people, infrastructure and so on. And here at the Media Edge Communications Ltd, I am back to media communication and branding. We are focused on generating Opinion Poll, Survey and Marketing Research to manage individuals and corporate organizations’ image.  For example, we engage in Reputation and Popularity Measurement for politicians. Same with consumer behaviour survey for brands and institutions. At the end of the day we use our media experience to publish effective communication contents in both the traditional and social media. We are generating credible analytics in collaboration with relevant agencies of government. We have also built an internal capacity to produce impeccable reports.  So you can see that it is a bit different from newspaper publishing, but it is still in the media realm.
What you are describing is intellectually demanding, a virgin area of communication in Nigeria. You were a busy man as managing director of Media Trust.  How did you prepare yourself for it?
The Media Trust we have today started as a communications company for two years before we started the newspaper, Weekly Trust. We did a bit of consultancy too in several areas of media practice. So, it’s a familiar terrain for me. Before I retired I had always known that this was an area I would love to go into. So, I am doing it because I have a passion for it. In other parts of the world, data journalism is developing and this may snowball into that. The analytics are more important than anything. If you are doing investigation, for example, you need data. We crunch data to generate unique contents. That’s what we are talking about, but we are focusing on issues that can be of value creation. If you want to do an assessment for your business – whether you should go into a new product, expand in certain territory for example, or you are an individual or government and trying to build brand or reputation backed with marketing research. We also publish data on interesting topics on social, economic and political issues.
You must have been communicating with your prospective customers. How are they receiving you?
Already we are working on few briefs.  We are doing a few surveys presently. We are also providing useful insights for some brand repositioning. We also have capacity to do the usual media relations.
We will still go back to Media Trust, to look at the company and the media environment. In 1996 when Media Trust started, you paddled the canoe up to 2014. How has the transition been from the beginning to 2014 when you retired and from then to this day?
We were a bit lucky when we started publishing the newspaper in 1998. Then we were based in Kaduna, the political capital of the North. At that time, the company gained enormous goodwill from directors, shareholders, columnists and the general public read us then.. Also the Chairman, who knew everyone of us, was already an accomplished journalist as at that time. Incidentally it was the bad days of Abacha’s rule and everyone had wanted democracy in Nigeria. The first edition of Weekly Trust was ‘If Abacha Runs…. ‘.So the first edition was well received by the readers and circulation grew rapidly throughout the North and beyond within six months. The readers quickly discovered it had credibility.  Right now the environment has become more competitive and other things like internet incursions have made it tougher for a new paper to grow at such a geometric progression that we did then.  But I must say that by and large, we supported the goodwill by setting up a good system that allowed us to grow from the beginning.
From when Daily Trust was established in 1998 to now, many newspapers have come up and have died. What are you doing to ensure that Daily Trust does not go under?
It was Robett  H. Estabrook who said that  ‘’…Journalism must be a business before it can be a profession. Before you can register editorial excellence, you need to apply business expertise. From day one we were determined to run it as a business; meaning that we set up the required internal control, code of practice, policies and corporate governance rule: all the things that make up a real business structure. And we have always had a very active board that gives the proper direction. If you don’t have a good business structure it won’t matter if you are selling millions of copies of newspaper and getting all the adverts in the world. So we are lucky to institute that from the beginning.
From your benefit of hindsight, given your experience, do you think newspaper business is profitable today?
Yes I think so. Closely related to what I’ve just said, it is my belief that some of the problems that some newspapers have, especially now that the economy is shrinking, is lack of the corporate structure to absorb the downturn. There are factors that are exogenous to you which you can’t control. Things like the size of the national budget in a year or industry advertisement budget or even sectoral, like what will print media get vis-a-vis electronic media. You don’t have control over internet incursions to circulation. You don’t have control over competition, you can’t tell anyone not to set up a newspaper. All these need new innovations to manage. And if you have an already good corporate structure you can easily navigate the odds and still post a healthy profit. Remember you may have a bad cash flow but still have good profits and a healthy balance sheet. Everything depends on what is your priority.
As you mentioned, many people are rushing to the internet to read newspapers. Does this mean that we have come to a point when we can make money from online newspapers?
No we haven’t. Even in Europe and America where the migration to the internet is faster than elsewhere, they are not making enough money from it yet. The other time I was at the New York Times and I had the privilege  to ask them  same questions and I found out they are not making enough revenue online yet. Also when you go to any international forum of newspapers the topic is usually at the front burner. Perhaps in the future, particularly with young people who are not ready to read the print version at all, or if new technology directs everybody to the digital platform. Indeed, when  Amazon introduced the e-books platform and most people rushed to the digital platform and were buying  their books and reading them online , new statistics later showed that in Europe book readers  are coming back to read the hard copy. People are coming back because there are traditions you can’t just wish away. People want to hold their newspapers in the morning and read back to back. So, it will still take some time before you can make good revenue from online advertisement platforms, especially from this part.
What should be the attitude of media managers in this atmosphere?
Go with the trend: get to the digital platform now called the new media but also hold on to your print copy. Guide it jealously and innovate from time to time. You have to innovate, especially in content. If you have good content, readers would stick with you.
Apart from Media Edge, we hear that you are in politics. How do you play your own politics?
My first call is media. The other one is politics. I’m an active member of the APC in my state and I’ve been involved in activities of the party at the various levels. I have a passion for change and I thought that I should make my contributions in that respect.
What is your ambition: is it governor you seek to be or what?
 For now I’m at the level of active participation. I’m not running for any position. A lot of people have said that they heard I’m contesting for this and that. Maybe they think I should. I have not told anyone  that I’m contesting for any position, but I am at the level of political participation.
This is talking about Kogi State. What are your thoughts about the state?   
I know the state very well. And I have the benefit of insights through the Governor whom I interact with from time to time.  I know the predicament in running such a vast state with such scant resources. I guess that is why it has become a problem for government to do feasible projects in all the local government areas. However, I believe one of the biggest problems is an over-bloated and redundant civil service with its attendant high recurrent expenditures. Government could do better if it confronted that head on. New employment could be generated by employing younger and trainable people in the service. If an unproductive father loses his job for the son to get a vacancy and make a better career in life, it is better for the society.  So, the approach can be totally different for anyone that becomes the next governor  even if it is the incumbent  again. Mining and tourism are peculiar resources of the state that are not yet developed and need proper harnessing.